A European company This seeks to develop an orbital spacrraft for freight, and perhaps humans, took a step forward this week with a flight which saw its mission possible the switching and the sub-assembly of vehicle in orbit before making a recenttery controlled in the atmosphere of the earth.
However, after having encountered a “problem”, the exploration company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before the touch in the ocean.
In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company qualified the test flight as a next partial and partial failure.
“The capsule was later launched, Power the country the country nominally in orbit, stability itself after separation from the launcher, reinstated and restored communication after Black Out”, ” The company said in a press release. “We investigate the deep causes and will soon share more information. We apologize to all our customers living in the use of their useful expenses.”
Maybe it was the parachutes
The restoration of communications with the spacecraft after the electricity period suggests that the vehicle has crossed the most thermal part of the atmosphere of the recent Intrry and may have validated the manipulation and capacity of the spaceship with maximum heating.
According to this, according to The company’s calendar For the possible mission, the parachutes of the capsule were two to deploy at a Bethaeen Mach 0.8 and Mach 0.6 speed. The parachutes were selected for their “flight heritage”, said the company, and were bought from airborne systems based in the United States, which provides parachutes used by the SpaceX Dragon, the Boeing Starner and other spacecrafts.
Since when the spaceship was lost, it seems very likely that there was a problem with the deployment of the drug or the main parachutes.
The possible mission was at a 2.5 -meter diameter demeraction vehicle which was one of the useful loads the largest launched Monday afterraon on the Mission of the Transporter 14 of SpaceX from the Vandenberg Space Force base in California. The mission sought to test four primary spatial flight zones: structural performance in orbital flight, surviving reintegration, autonomous navigation and remember in real conditions. He has clearly failed in this final task, recover the vehicle within three days to return the useful charges on board customers.
Bring together an aggressive chronology
It is refreshing to have such a clear and concise communication of a space company, quickly the recognition that a flight was a partial failure, with launching hours. And it is not surprising that there were technical challenges on a vehicle that has been set up fairly quickly and at low cost.
In An interview with ARS Last November, the founder of the exploration company, Hélène Huby, said that Mission possible was developed at the cost of around $ 20 million in 2.5 years, in addition to $ 10 million for the launch of carpooling on the Falcon 9 rocket.
At the time, she said that possible mission was on the right track to launch this summer and that the company met this calendar.
Given the potential problems with the parachute system or other problems close to the touchdown, it is possible that the exploration company can pilot another mission to demonstrate the sub-scales before moving on to the development of its full-size NYX cargo spaceship.
